Depending on the dry matter content (DM content) of the input medium, the solid cake will either al-
ready have the correct consistency with the initial setting of the weights or it will be either too soft or
too firm.
After formation of a cake and roughly 20 cm of DM throughput, the base settings should be corrected
again before the pump is set to continuous operation since the cake will otherwise “shoot out” if it is too
soft or clog the separator if it is too hard.
As a rule of thumb for a stable cake consistency, note the following:
The cake is too soft if the solid material is doughy, does not crumble, slides down a roughly 45° in-
clined surface rather than tumbling.
When pressed together (“normal hand pressure”) significant amounts of liquid comes out.
The cake is too firm if the solid material crumbles into very small individual pieces, does not break up
after emerging roughly 30 mm from the mouth piece, no water at all can be observed when pressing
together (“very strong hand pressure”).
These descriptions offer only a rough classification, and conditions depend heavily on the specific me-
dium. The actual limits must be determined individually in practice.
These guidelines serve only to assess a stable cake, not to determine the dry matter content of the
solid phase.
7.3 CONFIGURATION TO STABILIZE THE SOLID CAKE
7.3.1 Cake Too Firm
Move the weights inward on the arms or remove them entirely.
If the cake is too firm, the separator may clog up after prolonged opera-
tion since the cake can no longer be pushed out of the mouthpiece!
In order for the cake to be ejected more easily, the weights can be
moved forward symmetrically. If this is not sufficient and the cake is
still so firm that even the motor protection circuit breaker is tripped,
the weights can also be removed entirely and the solid matter pressed
in only by the dead weight of the lid
If there is a risk of the cake hardening during downtime, either a new
starter cake should be used for start-up later, the weights on the lever
arms should be reduced or the cake should be softened with water.
Never attempt to restart the machine with a hard cake in manual
mode via “jogging” since this can cause damage to the machine.